“So, if we’re really trying to accomplish violence control, then we need to have a more effective way to deal with the mentally ill, who commit violent acts, get them treatment, get them committed if we need to, to get them off the streets,” Christie said earlier in the week. “The fact of the matter is that young man in Connecticut that has spurred all this current conversation, was obviously deeply mentally disturbed. Why was he not getting treatment?”

The panel includes two former New Jersey Attorneys General, a school superintendent, and experts in substance abuse and mental health issues. It will have 60 days to report its findings.

The members of the task force, formally called the NJ SAFE Task Force, are as follows:

“So I know that what some people want to just focus on exclusively is gun control and I’m happy to talk about that as part of an overall approach cause what we’re trying to do here, as I understand it, is not gun control. It’s violence control,” Christie said.

He wants to explore the root causes of violence. Is it video games, a de-sensitized culture, a lack of attention to the needs of the mentally ill, or some combination of these elements? That’s what he wants to find out from the task force.

“If we don’t deal with the availability and the stigma attached to mental health counseling, if we don’t deal with the stigma attached to and the availability of substance abuse counseling, and if we don’t deal with the issue of violence in media and especially in video games, then we are short-changing this conversation,” he said.